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The Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership is
spearheading two projects during 2011: Ash Diversification
Collaboration and the Intermediate Stand Workshops.
Ash Diversification Project (ADC): With the current treat of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) growing in Minnesota, a collective multi-agency management effort for entire lowland hardwood/ ash stands across ownerships in northern Minnesota has been formed. It is comprised of: the Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Itasca, Beltrami and Cass County Land Departments; and the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa.
The ADC was formed to facilitate an approach for managing ash stands across ownerships. The function of this group of land managers/land owners is to design a collective response to ash management, in light of EAB, as a pilot project which could serve as a potential model for other landowners/ managers and additional landscapes in northern Minnesota.
The immediate goals of the ADC project are to 1) combine forest inventory databases of the collaborating agencies and 2) to subsequently identify and prioritized ash/ lowland hardwood stands common to these agencies. To facilitate this process, the CNF has volunteered to create a combined spatial database from all the collaborating landowners within the jurisdictional boundaries of the three counties involved. This will involve 1) combining the forest inventory databases of the agencies into a single spatial database and 2) identifying ash stands prioritized by the individual collaborating agencies for their land bases.
If the ADC project proves to be a successful collaborative, it could serve as a model for managing ash in other locations in Minnesota. Minnesota has an advantage of being able to test management strategies before widespread EAB outbreaks throughout the state. Using information from other states where EAB has already been established can potentially allow Minnesota landowners to diversify their ash stands before widespread populations of EAB are established in the state.
Intermediate Stand Treatments Project:
The purpose of this Project is increase understanding of how
to effectively apply intermediate treatments to diverse
forest stands and with mixed species management; reduce
barriers to increased adoption; and examine the use of
thinning, partial cutting systems, and other types of
intermediate treatments in the practice of forestry
through classroom and field training; demonstration
sites; and web-based support of the same.
Field demonstrations geared to private forest landowners and loggers will take place:
July 7: New York Mills
August 31: Long Lake Conservation Center
October 7: Brimson
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